News

A shoe designed by Product Design Program student Stefan Cristobal will be produced for shoe brand Android Homme in 2015 after Cristobal won the 2014 Pensole World Sneaker Championship.

WIRED has featured Assistant Professor Rick Silva’s futuristic bird project in a recent issue. Silva teaches animation in the UO Department of Art’s Digital Arts Program.

Faculty members in business and product design are crafting new master’s degree programs. The Sports Products Initiative will offer two new degrees. The first to launch in fall 2015 will be sports product management and will be offered by the Lundquist College of Business.

Transitions that began last week at the UO ripple through the School of Architecture and Allied Arts. With leadership changes at the top in the appointment of an interim president, Frances Bronet is now the Acting Senior Vice President and Provost for the university. For the school’s top post, current associate dean Brook Muller will serve as Acting Dean effective August 25.

Oregon Public Broadcasting featured Product Design Program Assistant Professor Trygve Faste on Saturday’s OPB "State of Wonder" radio program. Faste spoke with host April Baer about the intersection of studio art and design. Faste’s comments on OPB previewed a speech he’ll deliver this week at the international Industrial Designers Society of America conference in Austin, Texas.

Online voting ends August 2 for The Bike Design Project, a national competition intended to develop the “next-wave urban bike.” One of the five finalist teams includes University of Oregon graduates whose “key influencers” include A&AA alumnus Tinker Hatfield of Nike, Inc.

A story in the current Men’s Journal features research by a UO Product Design Program class on how to design a next-generation condom. In a classroom laboratory, the students tested seventy different condoms on twenty attributes.

The first student-built house in the OregonBILDS (Building Integrated Livable Designs Sustainably) project is on the Home Builder’s Association of Lane County’s 2014 Tour of Homes through July 27. The house was featured in a Register-Guard story about the tour and is open weeknights from 6-9 p.m. and weekends from noon to 6 p.m.

Zander Eckblad, BS ’14, materials and product studies, is among six entrepreneurs accepted into the Regional Accelerator and Innovation Network (RAIN) to work with the City of Eugene to grow innovative technology businesses. Eckblad is the founder of Black Lodge Design Lab, which is developing environmental-friendly building materials using nanocellulose. RAIN, funded by $3.75 million from the Oregon Legislature, aims to help entrepreneurs turn new technologies into businesses that will create well-paid jobs. Eckblad was an Oregon BEST Red List Design Challenge winner in 2013.